


The Color of Her Sky

by fratdadfan



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 12:41:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22783204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fratdadfan/pseuds/fratdadfan
Summary: Alex falls for the girl who is in love with the sky.
Relationships: Alex Morgan/Kelley O'Hara
Comments: 18
Kudos: 103





	The Color of Her Sky

**Author's Note:**

> sorry in advance

Kelley’s memories were defined by the colors of the sky. At her high school graduation, it was a cloudless and never-ending expanse of baby blue, perfect weather for the outdoor ceremony. The night of her first kiss, the sky was a dark navy and dappled by bright stars and a glowing moon when her Homecoming date leaned in close as they stood on her front porch. It didn’t last more than five seconds, but she knew then that he wasn’t the one. Perhaps she had already known.

It was grey and rainy when she broke her ankle for the first time in a reckless slide tackle from a defender on an opposing soccer team (more blueish-purple to match the bruises when she broke it the second time). And it was yellow in the early morning hours when David left for Iraq, pale streaks of light waking the world as tears streamed down her face. She understood the need to make her country proud, to represent the United States with honor, but fight in a war? That was a little too intense for her. She was so angry that day he left, unable to grasp the idea of not seeing him for eight months. But he was her hero, her brave older brother who was always the funniest guy in the room, someone you could count on for anything, and more importantly her best friend.

The sky was pale blue the day they buried him. It burned so intensely in her memory that some nights she dreamed of only that color.

The sky was golden when she met Alex.

The clouds were light pinkish, like champagne, brightly lit by the sun that was setting over the ocean.

A beach bonfire. The perfect celebratory end to her senior year of college.

Kelley noticed Alex right away. She was lean, fit like an athlete, and had movie star good looks to match. She was a bit taller than Kelley was, with pretty brown hair and perfectly sun-kissed skin. She seemed reserved, standing off to the side, smiling lightly with two girls whom Kelley assumed were her friends. She had a red cup in one hand and absentmindedly twisted at the pendant of her necklace with the other. Kelley was captivated the moment she saw her.

“I’m Kelley.” She smiled.

“Alex.” The other girl nodded her head with a soft smile of her own. Kelley could see the flickering light of the bonfire dancing in her eyes making them a mysterious shade of blue. It reminded Kelley of the ocean on a stormy day. They were soft, wise almost, yet cautiously guarded.

They talked, and Kelley got Alex to smile, and then laugh and it may have helped that there was alcohol involved but she convinced Alex to let her walk her home. And when they arrived at the apartment building three blocks from the beach, Kelley convinced Alex to keep walking, that there was no way this night could already be over. So they walked to a nearby playground and sat at the end of a double-wide slide trading stories and laughs. They learned they were both staying in the city to work, they were both nervous to start their ‘grown-up jobs,’ both excited to start new chapters of their lives.

When Alex yawned and noted that it was nearly three AM, Kelley agreed to _actually _walk her home this time.

Their first date was a picnic in the park. The sky was light blue, dotted with puffy white clouds that Kelley pointed out looked like sailboats, or dogs with party hats on, to which Alex laughed and rolled her eyes. Kelley internally observed the way the taller girl’s nose scrunched up when she laughed like that, the way the corners of her eyes crinkled when she thought Kelley had said something especially ridiculous. It was a look she fell in love with immediately. The constricting feeling it gave her chest was addicting, a feeling she wanted to chase forever.

\--

They learn that they are opposites in many ways. Alex is soft-spoken, and so very smart, a tad mysterious some might say. She is thoughtful and intentional with her words. A good listener, and even better at giving advice. She’s skeptical, but if you ask her she’d say she’s just realistic.

Kelley is different. She is bubbly and funny and she speaks her mind at all times. She isn’t afraid to say how she feels or what she thinks. She believes in fate and sees the good in all things.

But somehow they get along so very well. They fit together by filling each other’s deficits. They enhance each other’s good qualities and smooth out the not so good ones. They have an undeniably electric chemistry, bouncing off one another like fireworks. 

Kelley is a hopeless romantic. Alex, not so much.

Kelley is convinced early on that Alex is the one. Alex makes her heart race but feel so steady at the same time. Her thoughts are filled and her senses so blissfully clouded by the other girl. And after a few weeks of casually dating she knows what she wants. She says:

“I think you were made for me.”

“People aren’t made for _each other_. They are made for themselves,” Alex says simply. And Kelley rolls her eyes. By now she’d gotten used to the poetic pessimism of the taller girl. They are sitting on the roof of Kelley’s apartment overlooking the lights of the beach town spread out before them. The sky is descending into a steely blue as night falls. 

“Be my girlfriend,” Kelley says pulling Alex’s hand into her own and massaging soft circles into the skin between her thumb and forefinger. She looks at Alex intensely as she works to memorize the feeling of Alex’s skin on her own.

It is the third time she has asked so far. Each time prior Alex had rejected her. She’s not one to date she says. She likes what they are now, no labels complicating things.

But Kelley is persistent, and she knows what she wants.

So on the third try instead of saying no, Alex instead offers a small smile.

“Do you ever give up?” Her voice is raspy, a sound Kelley loves.

“Never.” She smiles leaning in to softly caress Alex’s lips with her own.

And finally, Alex agrees, she will be Kelley’s girlfriend, and if she’s honest, she kind of likes the way it sounds anyway.

\--

Alex quickly learns of Kelley’s fascination with the sky. She picks up on the way Kelley points out the colors each time they step outside, the way she stops to stare at the clouds, how she drags Alex to the top of the hill at the end of her street for nearly every sunset.

“You know all those pretty colors when the sun sets are really from pollution.” Alex says. 

Kelley huffs. “Yes, I know that. I was an environmental engineering major, remember.”

Alex laughs, “Ok, just wanted to make sure.”

“Just because something is made through an ugly process doesn’t mean the end result is any less beautiful,” Kelley says.

“Poetic.” Alex says with a raised eyebrow, not quite sure if Kelley’s words hold wisdom or naiveté.

Kelley tilts her head upward, allowing herself to watch the clouds drift aimlessly above as a small smile tugs at the corner of her lips. She doesn’t know how to put it into words. But somehow staring at the vast expanse of color overhead lights something inside her. It makes her heart feel full, brimming like it might overflow with something unknown.

“Looking at the sky makes me feel the way I do when I look at you.” She says, she glances over at Alex and catches the girl rolling her eyes playfully. Alex decides then that she might just love the sky too.

\--

Their free days are spent at the beach and their nights spent driving slowly and aimlessly through town, with the windows rolled all the way down, music blasting as wind rushes through their hair. Alex learned to tolerate country music and Kelley’s off-tune singing voice, growing to even enjoy the sound. And soon days turn to weeks, and then to months as their summer romance seeps into the fall.

And slowly but surely Kelley learns to read Alex’s eyes. The icy ocean orbs that had seemed so mysterious at the outset of their relationship have thawed.

Some days they have a determined glint, especially when someone tries to tell Alex she can’t do something. When Alex has that look, Kelley’s learned it is best to stay out of the way.

Other times they are infinitely dark, a navy pool that Kelley could drown in. And in those moments, Kelley feels something churn low in her stomach, a hunger ignited within her, something she knows Alex feels too. Kelley has learned she especially loves those eyes. And she definitely loves what follows them too. 

And other times, Alex has a look that she reserves for when Kelley says something too sappy. Then, her eyes are skeptical, slightly squinted and usually paired with a lopsided smile. Kelley sees those eyes _a lot_.

“I want you forever, Alex.” Kelley says one night as they watch TV.

Alex laughs, she gives her _the look_, “Forever is a really long time you know.”

“I know.” Kelley says. And she smiles that knowing smile of hers. Because Kelley also has a look of her own when she says things like this. A look like she means what she says wholeheartedly, like she doesn’t care who hears it. After every over the top admission of affection that Alex waves off, Kelley just grins as if she is aware of something that Alex has yet to find out. As if she knows they were destined to be together. She is so overwhelmingly sure of herself and their relationship, something that Alex at times cannot fathom. Where she gets all this confidence, she doesn’t know.

Alex learns that Kelley’s least favorite color of the sky is pale blue, like the sunny April day when they laid her brother to rest. The story makes Alex’s heart clench as a tragic sadness seeps into Kelley’s eyes, one she hasn’t seen before.

But Alex also learns that Kelley’s favorite color is “dark grey, with purple-ish clouds like right before a thunderstorm.” And Alex is reminded of a time where she and Kelley raced through the parking lot after dinner subject to the onslaught of unexpected heavy rain. As they reached the car, Kelley had pinned her to the door of her beat-up old Jeep and kissed her intensely as the cold rain drenched their clothing. Her lips were soft, sweet from the wine they’d consumed, and so insistent but gentle at the same time, just like Kelley was herself. It was one of Alex’s favorite moments.

“But I also really like when the sky is ‘Alex Blue.’ Just like the color of those ocean eyes of yours.” Kelley smiles and Alex can’t help but grin back.

\--

One day as they sit on Kelley’s roof the sky is streaked red and orange as the sun sets.

“I’m so in love with you, Alex.” Kelley admits, and she waits as she expects the other girl to laugh, to give her that look, that smile that says “you don’t mean it.”

But instead, Alex surprises her with tender eyes, so delicately soft, and a heated blush creeping up her neck. And she whispers the words back. Words she’s never said to anyone besides her family members before. She feels vulnerable, but so safe will Kelley right there with her.

“I love you too.”

\--

They move in together not much longer after that on a rainy Spring day with a grey stretch of sky blanketing the world. They come to find that they share a living space very well. They both are early risers, liking to get in a workout before they head off to work each day. They reconvene in evenings where Kelley cooks them dinner as they share glasses of wine, and afterward Alex cleans the dishes. Other nights they order take-out from their favorite Chinese restaurant and share egg rolls while they watch romantic comedies or addictingly trashy reality TV.

Sometimes they fight about stupid things, like when Alex leaves her shoes out and Kelley trips on them in the dark, or when Kelley eats the last of the breakfast cereal and leaves the box in the pantry.

Other times they fight about not so stupid things, but those arguments usually end with the two falling into bed together, rushed breaths and lips pressed to racing pulses working to resolve the tension.

They are also so desperately and hopelessly in love. Their friends joke that they are way too nauseatingly cute as they fold into each other’s lives nearly seamlessly. Kelley continues to unashamedly pronounce her love to Alex, leaving her notes to find around the house when she feels like it, and sometimes writing her lengthy love letters when she has the time.

In the mornings she makes Alex’s coffee just the way she likes it. And at night she spends her time memorizing Alex’s curves and the touches that make her come undone. She's infatuated with the raspy way Alex calls out her name when she touches her just right, never wanting to forget the sound.

And Alex loves Kelley just as fiercely back, but in different ways. She hugs her tightly, giving her reasons to smile and laugh, and she doesn’t complain when Kelley warms her freezing feet on her every night before bed. She takes careful note of Kelley’s favorite songs and movies, playing them back when the other girl needs her spirits lifted.

She also lets Kelley get closer to her in ways she has never opened herself to anyone else. She lets her skeptical slide slip away just for her, letting her words turn sweet and romantic in the private confines of their room late at night. She too learns Kelley’s body well, maybe even better.

\--

Kelley proposes on a sunny day as they picnic in the park. A recreation of their first date together. The sky is ‘Alex Blue,’ Kelley points out as she gazes up at the color that is so nearly becoming her favorite. An ocean in the sky she thinks. It is early autumn, the air still holding leftover warmth from the summer months.

She pulls out a diamond ring as she holds Alex’s hand tightly. She notes that her heart does not race, she holds no nerves. Instead, it beats steady in her chest like rolling thunder. She’d always known Alex was the one.

Alex gasps at the sight of the ring, and she connects eyes with Kelley’s loving green ones, flecked with gold, so sure, so gentle.

“Alex, I want to come home to you every day from now until forever. I want your hair to always clog my drain, and I want you hogging the blanket from me every night. I want lazy Sunday mornings and our kids to wake us up too early on Christmas Day. I want us to grow old and wrinkly together. I want us sitting on rocking chairs on our porch as we yell at the neighborhood kids to get off our lawn.” Alex laughs. Kelley’s smile is so bright and radiant, eyes glistening.

“I want to be yours and I want you to be mine. For the rest of our lives.” She pauses. “So what are you doing for the next 75 years or so?”

Alex’s smile is watery as she says yes, even though Kelley hadn’t even asked the question.

They wed the following summer in June, an outdoor ceremony, Kelley insisted, and Alex knew she wanted to see the sky. As they trade vows, a brilliant gold lights the world, streaked orange by the setting sun. Kelley pauses right before they lock lips and looks her new wife up and down. Alex knows that the shorter girl is trying to burn the moment into her memory. It is what she had just done herself.

They spend the night dancing away with their friends and family surrounding them. A perfect wedding. 

It is only a year later, the sky a perfect blue, when she dies. A car accident ripping her life from her so suddenly. Ripping Kelley’s life from Alex for no apparent reason.

Alex thinks the sky is too bright, too unblemished for the worst thing in her life to ever happen to her. It can’t be that this perfectly blue sky exists above a world where Kelley is no longer alive. She can barely bring herself to look upward, but she knows she wants to remember this color, as if somehow that will freeze Kelley in place. 

She tries to think back to the last words Kelley said to her but she can’t remember and it makes her break down to think she won’t ever hear her voice again. The day flies by in a blur that Alex can only recall a few events from. Her family surrounding her. Kelley’s mother weeping in agony at the tragedy of two lost children in one lifetime. A sleepless night with a half-empty bed. 

The day of the funeral Alex finds one last note from Kelley that she hadn’t noticed before. It was hidden in the medicine cabinet, attached to her deodorant. And Alex knows why she hadn’t seen it, because she hadn’t had the strength or energy to get out of bed and groom herself for the past week.

_Have a wonderful day sweetheart!_

_I love you endlessly_

_Yours Always, Kel _

Alex traces her finger over the crookedly drawn heart next to Kelley’s name as sobs begin to wrack her body.

\--

Months later when she visits Kelley’s grave as she does every Sunday morning, the sky is a dark grey, with purple-ish clouds hanging heavy in the air, Kelley’s favorite, and Alex senses a thunderstorm coming. She knows she can’t stay long. She lays the flowers she brought with her down against the headstone, letting her eyes trace over the numbers that show Kelley’s birth date. It reminds her of the time only a few months after they met when Alex had gotten sick and Kelley spent her very own birthday taking care of the taller girl. Alex smiles fondly thinking of Kelley’s homemade chicken noodle soup, wishing she could travel back and escape to that time for a moment.

A crack of nearby thunder brings her out of the memory and Alex looks up to the sky, a 'Kelley Sky,' she thinks, and although her heart hasn’t known peace since the freckled girl left this earth, she feels a calmness wash over her for the first time in months.

And she feels grateful that she will forever be in love with the girl in love with the sky.

**Author's Note:**

> what'd you think?


End file.
